married to Tartar princes, and mandarins of high rank, who always
consider such an alliance a mark of distinction. The great men of the
Celestial Empire keep their women most carefully concealed from all
eyes but their own. If there is occasion to remove them from one place
of residence to another, they are conveyed in close carriages, with
gauze drawn over the small windows, and a eunuch to guard them on each
side. On state occasions, they are sometimes admitted to the theatre,
where they are concealed behind a screen of close lattice-work. The
scenes represented on the Chinese stage are said to be so indecent
and disgusting, that European spectators are absolutely driven away.
They have no actresses. Female characters are performed by beardless
young men, in the costume of women. The ladies amuse themselves with
embroidery, music, dancing, puppet-shows, and painting birds, flowers,
and insects, on rice-paper, or thin gauze. Some of the emperors,
willing to gratify the curiosity of their wives, built within the parks
of their palaces miniature towns, to represent, on a small scale,
the most remarkable objects in Pekin. The gardens belonging to the
imperial palaces are exceedingly picturesque and beautiful. Here the
princes spend many tranquil hours, while their wives play on musical
instruments, and their children frolic around them.
Chinese education consists principally in learning certain ceremonials
of behavior; such as what kind of salutation to make to a superior,
what to an inferior, how to give a present, and how to receive one.
When an emperor dies, his widows cannot marry again. They are removed
to a palace peculiarly appropriated to their use, and never again
allowed to leave it. It was formerly customary to immolate a number of
slaves on the grave of an emperor, or prince; but this has given place
to the harmless custom of burning images of tinfoil, cut in the human
form.
A bridegroom knows nothing of the character or person of his intended
wife, except what he gathers from the report of some female relative,
or confidant, who undertakes to arrange the marriage, and determine
the sum that shall be paid for the bride. Very severe laws are made
to prevent deception and fraud in these transactions. On the day
appointed for the wedding, the damsel is placed in a close palanquin,
the key of which is sent to the bridegroom, by the hands of some trusty
domestic. Her relations and friends, accompanied by squalling music,
escort her to his house; at the gate of which he stands in full dress,
ready to receive her. He eagerly opens the palanquin and examines his
bargain. If he is pleased, she enters his dwelling, and the marriage
is celebrated with feasting and rejoicing; the men and women being all
the time in separate apartments. If the bridegroom is dissatisfied, he
shuts the palanquin, and sends the woman back to her relations; but
when this happens, he must pay another sum of money equal to the price
he first gave for her. A woman who unites beauty with accomplishments
brings from four to seven hundred louis d’ors; some sell for less than
one hundred. The apartments of the women are separated from those of
the men by a wall, at which a guard is stationed. The wife is never
allowed to eat with her husband; she cannot quit her apartments without
permission; and he does not enter hers without first asking leave.
Brothers are entirely separated from their sisters at the age of nine
or ten years.
Divorces are allowed in cases of criminality, mutual dislike, jealousy,
incompatibility of temper, or too much loquacity on the part of the
wife.
The Chinese character is grave, ceremonious, and taciturn. It is said
that women are in the habit of answering concisely, and seldom speak
unless spoken to; nevertheless the Chinese proverb declares, “What
women have lost in their feet they have gained in their tongues.” If
female loquacity be a ground for divorce, it may render the marriage
contract very precarious, even in China. A husband can neither put
away his wife, nor sell her, until a divorce is legally obtained. If
she leaves him, he may immediately commence an action at law, by the
sentence of which she becomes his slave, and he is at liberty to sell
her to whom he pleases. If he leaves her for three years, she may, by
permission of the mandarins, marry again; but if she were to anticipate
their consent, she would be liable to very severe punishment.
A husband has always a right to sell an unfaithful wife for a slave.
Women do not inherit property, but it may be left to them by will.
Next to submission, industry is inculcated as the greatest of female
virtues. The following are extracts from a Chinese ballad: “Employment
is the guardian of female innocence; do not allow women time to be
idle; let them be the first dressed, and the last undressed, all the
year round.”
“No in-door household work is repugnant to a modest and sensible woman.
The shuttle and the needle are only the occupation of her leisure; the
neatness of her house is the work of her cares; and it is her glory
either to nurse the sick, or prepare a repast.”
“The pearls and precious stones, the silk and gold with which a
coquette so studiously bedecks herself, are a transparent varnish which
makes all her defects the more apparent.”
It seems difficult to imagine such a thing as coquetry, where there are
no opportunities for display. However, the Chinese must be more stupid
than women in general, if they are beautiful and cannot contrive some
means to let the world know it. Travellers say they have sometimes seen
pretty Chinese girls sitting smoking pipes at the doors, but that they
always ran away at their approach. Perhaps when they see a young man of
their own nation and rank, they take time to knock the ashes from their
pipes before they run.
Most of the houses in cities have terrace roofs, on which flowers
and shrubs are planted; and these form a favorite promenade for the
ladies. The Chinese being a sedentary people, their florists, fruit
dealers, &c. are obliged to walk about the streets crying their goods;
mantuamakers, carrying a basket with the implements of their trade,
march round in search of customers, which are not very numerous in a
land where the fashions never change; fortune-tellers, mountebanks,
and jugglers, squeaking on a wretched flute, likewise go from house to
house, and are beckoned to call where their services are required.
The wealthy make great rejoicings at the birth of a child, particularly
if it be a son. They boil great quantities of eggs hard, prepare rice
after a peculiar fashion, and send these, with dainties of various
kinds, to their relatives and friends. On the third day the child is
washed, and new feasts are given. Hundreds of eggs, called _third-day
eggs_, are roasted and painted all manner of colors. Relations and
friends in their turn present the same kind of eggs, with all sorts of
pastry and sweetmeats.
The oldest Chinese writers attribute the first invention of spinning
to the wife of their emperor Yao, and the discovery of silk to one of
the wives of their emperor Hoang-Ti. From that time, the empresses have
been in the habit of breeding, rearing, and feeding silkworms, reeling
the cocoons, and working the silk. Until the last dynasty, there was a
mulberry grove in the gardens of the palace. Every year, the empress,
accompanied by the queens and the other principal ladies of the court,
went to this grove with great solemnity and gathered leaves from the
branches, which her attendants lowered within her reach. The finest
pieces of silk, which were made under her own inspection, and at
which she often worked, were destined for the ceremony of the great
sacrifice to Chang-Ti.
In the silk establishments the care of the insects is intrusted to an
intelligent woman called _Tsam-Mou_, or _Mother of the Worms_. She is
not allowed to perform the duties of her office, unless she has just
bathed, and put on perfectly clean clothes. She must not have eaten
recently, or touched wild endive, the smell of which is considered
injurious to the young worms. She wears thin light robes, that she may
be able to judge of the heat of the room; for the Chinese do not use
thermometers in these establishments. The indifference with which the
silk reelers plunge their hands into boiling water, in order to recover
the cocoon when the thread breaks, is truly astonishing. Bowls of cold
water are kept near, to soothe the pain. The skin on the hands of these
women becomes very thick and tough.
When the Chinese women are engaged in embroidery, or any other
sedentary employment, they are usually seated on large china jars
instead of chairs. Their mirrors are of highly polished copper, which
they prefer to glass.
It is said that the leaves of the best kind of tea are rolled
separately by the fingers of a woman appointed to the business. Females
of the lower classes endure as much labor and fatigue as the men. A
wife sometimes drags the plough in rice fields with an infant tied upon
her back, while her husband performs the less arduous task of holding
the plough.
No Chinese female is allowed to leave the celestial empire, nor is any
foreign woman permitted to pass the frontiers. A European woman, who
once endeavored to enter Pekin in disguise, was discovered, and came
very near losing her life. In two or three instances Chinese women have
escaped secretly, and been exhibited as great curiosities in Europe and
America; but their punishment would be very severe, should they again
come under the laws of China. These strict regulations are doubtless
made to prevent the introduction of new fashions, and democratic
ideas, to disturb the dead calm that prevails in a country where the
individuals of each class are entirely subservient to the one above
it, and where women of all classes are allowed a very small share of
personal freedom.
The custom of exposing infants, principally daughters, prevails in
China, as well as in some parts of Hindostan. Every morning five carts
drawn by buffaloes traverse the streets of Pekin to pick up babes, whom
parents are either unable or unwilling to support, as well as those
whose lifeless bodies are thus exposed to avoid the great expenses
attending burial. The dead infants are conveyed to a public cemetery,
and the living are placed in a charitable asylum. As the streets of
Chinese cities swarm with hungry dogs and swine, the fate of these poor
innocents is sometimes horrible. Catholic and Mohammedan missionaries
station themselves at the gate of the cemetery, to save such as appear
to have any remains of life. Sailors and fishermen often put their
new-born infants into gourds and toss them into the water, where
they perish, unless some kind hand is stretched forth to save them.
The children thus cruelly exposed are usually girls, because they are
less likely to be profitable to poor parents than boys, and it is more
difficult to bring them up.
It is supposed that as many as twenty or thirty thousand infants are
annually exposed in the Chinese empire. These scenes principally occur
in cities, and are more frequent in seasons of scarcity.
The Chinese celebrate the commencement of the year with great
festivities. The tribunals and shops are closed, the posts stopped,
and all business, public and private, suspended; presents are given,
children formally pay respects to their parents; mandarins do the same
to their superior officers, and servants to their masters. This is
called “taking leave of the old year.” In the evening, all the family
partake of a great feast, to which no stranger is admitted; but the
next day they are more social, and spend the whole time in feasting and
amusements. The celebration is concluded by brilliant illuminations in
the evening.
Chinese children are not allowed to make the remotest allusion to the
infirmities of old age, in the presence of their father or mother. If
their father be in mourning for any relative, they must abstain from
playing on instruments; and they must give up music, all kinds of
entertainments, and even bright-colored dresses, if their father or
mother is ill.
White is the mourning color among the Chinese. A son cannot wear it
while his parents are alive, but he can wear no other for three years
after their death; and even after this period of mourning is ended, his
garments must ever be of one color.
The emperor Kien-Long having fallen in love with a beautiful young girl
at Sanchou-Fou, his empress hung herself. One of her sons was very
much embarrassed to know what course to pursue. To go into mourning
might seem like an insult to his father; and to omit it would be
disrespectful to the memory of his mother. By the advice of his tutor,
he appeared with a full dress over a suit of mourning. This enraged the
emperor so much, that he gave his son a violent kick, which occasioned
his death a few days after.
Every morning, at daybreak, a Chinese son is required to present his
father and mother with water to wash their hands, and stand ready to
perform any trifling services they may require. Filial obedience is
carried to such an extreme, that a son is bound to divorce his wife
if she be displeasing to his parents. Even the emperor himself is not
exonerated from these obligations. When the mother of Kien-Long died,
all the mandarins were ordered to go into mourning for seventeen days,
and to abstain from all amusements. No person of any rank was allowed
to shave for the space of one hundred days, or to partake of any
entertainment. For one month, people were not permitted to marry; and
in the most crowded streets all classes refrained from speaking, except
in whispers. The will of that princess is a curious document:
“Though unworthy, high Heaven has bestowed upon me its choicest favors.
I received from the blessed ancestors of my husband the most valuable
of all gifts, when I brought into the world a son destined to succeed
him. The emperor, always full of tenderness and respect for his mother,
has omitted nothing that lay in his power to render my life happy. He
never failed to come every morning and evening either to salute me,
or to see me eat. He was constantly contriving means to gratify my
heart. He danced in my presence, recited the poems he composed, showed
me paintings which no hand but his own had touched, and decorated my
apartments with them himself. All these attentions penetrated to the
bottom of my soul. I forgot my age, and my old frame was filled with
new vigor.”
At the close of the long and magnificent procession which followed this
empress to her grave, were pages bearing her mirrors, boxes, jewels,
fans, &c.; and last of all the walking stick on which she had leaned in
her old age, was carried along with peculiar veneration.
The Chinese books are full of anecdotes of filial piety. “The mother of
Ouang-Ouei-Yuen had ever expressed great apprehensions of thunder, and
when she saw it approaching always requested her son not to leave her.
After her death, whenever he heard a storm coming on, he hastened to
his mother’s grave, and said softly, ‘I am here, mother.’”
Another story is told of a young woman whose mother-in-law, being
without teeth, could not take food without great exertion. Her dutiful
step-daughter nursed her several years from her own breast often rising
in the night to afford her nourishment.
In the month of April, the Chinese visit the tombs of their parents,
however distant, to pluck up the weeds, repeat certain ceremonies,
and deposit wine and provisions. When the Tartars invaded China, they
availed themselves of the filial piety of the people, and marched
against them with their captive mothers ranged in front of the troops.
In some cases, where this experiment was tried, the women fell by
their own hands, calling out to their sons to revenge the death of
those who would not consent to be an obstacle in the way of their
courage. At this trying period the Chinese women, disguised as men,
labored with the utmost zeal, carrying wood, stones, &c. to rebuild the
fortifications.
A widow of any considerable rank seldom marries again. Those of high
station esteem it a sacred duty to show this mark of veneration for the
memory of a husband, even if they have been but a few days married, or
even if the marriage contract had been settled at the time of his death.
The poorer classes of widows are often sold for the benefit of their
deceased husband’s relations, who are desirous of regaining the money
originally paid for them. The arrangement is often made without their
knowledge, and in spite of their resistance. As soon as the bargain
is concluded; the new proprietor sends a palanquin well guarded, and
the widow is locked up in it, and sent to his house. If avaricious
relatives force a woman to this step before the customary period
of mourning expires, she can obtain redress by application to the
mandarins. A widow who is averse to a second marriage, and has no one
on whom she can rely to repay the original price, may avoid it by
becoming a _bonze_ or _nun_. Of these there are two orders in China.
One have their heads shaved, and covered with a black cap, wear dark
robes, and live together in communities, like convents; the other class
dress more elegantly, and are not confined to any particular place of
abode. The female bonzes are not as numerous, or so much respected, as
formerly. In 1787, one of them, who pretended to perform miracles, and
predict future events, gained such unbounded influence over the minds
of women of rank and wealth, that her vanity and ostentation became
excessive. She received homage on a kind of throne, and ventured to
wear the light yellow robes appropriated to the imperial family. Until
this period, Chinese women had been allowed to visit temples served by
these priestesses; but the enraged emperor, having put the ambitious
bonze to death, forthwith issued the following decree: “All persons
of the female sex, of whatever quality and condition, are forbidden
upon any pretext whatsoever to enter a temple, or to quit their houses
except in cases of absolute necessity. Fathers, husbands, brothers,
sons, or relatives, are commanded to keep them at home, upon pain of
being themselves severely punished. After this prohibition, any woman
who shall enter a temple shall be apprehended and imprisoned, till
some one shall appear to claim her, and to undergo the punishment due
to his negligence.”
By the despotic laws of China a man not only suffers for his own
crimes, but it is often ordained that his wife, all his mistresses, his
children, and his near relations, shall be put to death, or sold into
slavery. Suicide is said to be more common with both sexes in China,
than in any part of the world.
The habits of this singular people are very uncleanly. They seldom wash
their garments, and do not, like most Asiatics, bathe frequently. It is
said that the bandages round the women’s little feet sometimes drop to
pieces without ever having been changed.
Great numbers of people live continually in boats on the water. The
children are tied to the raft with ropes, so that they can run about;
and sometimes their mothers fasten an empty gourd about their necks, to
keep them above water, in case they fall overboard. Many persons born
in these floating dwellings never quit them till they die.
Some of the Chinese customs are much despised by their Tartar
conquerors. The Tartar women, instead of cramping their feet, add to
their natural length by shoes with a long curved toe. The Chinese, in
derision, call them Tartar junks, from the resemblance they bear to
those vessels. These women have a frank confident look, and appear
freely in the streets, either walking, riding on horseback after the
fashion of men, or carried by two bearers on a little open carriage
supported by one wheel. Like the Chinese women, they cover their faces
with paint, but have naturally a more delicate complexion. They are in
general well formed. A small waist is regarded by them as a peculiar
characteristic of beauty. Their hair is turned up all round, tied on
the top of the head, after the Chinese fashion, and almost always
adorned with flowers. The constant habit of smoking and chewing betel
makes their teeth yellow.
At the new and full moon Tartar women sacrifice to a household god,
called the Spirit of the Door. Two lighted tapers are placed on a small
altar, and leaves of gold and silver paper are burned in a pan of
perfumes. This is done with the idea of warding off certain malignant
influences, which might bring disasters on the dwelling.
Many of the conquerors, who did not bring wives with them, married
Chinese women, and their descendants are still called Tartars. It
is said that when they conquered the province of Nankin, they made
prisoners of all the women, whom they did not choose to appropriate
to themselves. Old and young were tied up in sacks, and sold at the
same price. A Chinese artisan, who had but ten shillings, went to
market, with the rest, to try his luck. His money was exactly the price
required; so he seized a sack, slung it over his shoulders, and pushed
through the crowd to examine his bargain. When he found he had bought
an ugly old woman, he was so enraged that he was about to throw the
unfortunate creature into the river. But she begged him to spare her
life, assuring him that her sons would amply reward him; and in fact it
proved that he had drawn no inconsiderable prize in this odd lottery.
In the mountainous districts of China is a singular tribe called
the Miao-Tse. They live together in the utmost harmony, under the
government of elders. The men and women dress almost exactly alike.
The men wear ear-rings, and the women carry a sword. Both go barefoot,
and climb the sharpest rocks with the swiftness of mountain goats. The
women roll their hair round a board about a foot long and six inches
broad, to which they fasten the hair with bees-wax, so as to form a
sort of hat. This is very inconvenient when they wish to lie down. They
comb it but three or four times a year, and are obliged to spend hours
in melting the wax before the fire. One of these women defended a fort
against Chinese troops, for more than two months after every other
being but herself was killed. She contrived to fire several muskets in
such a manner as to deceive them with regard to the strength of the
garrison; and at every moment of leisure she collected heaps of large
stones, to hurl down upon them from different places with her foot.
The Coreans, though they in general observe the customs that prevail in
the Chinese empire, do not cripple the feet of their women; and young
people are allowed to marry according to their own inclinations, after
having had free opportunities of becoming acquainted with each other.
In this respect, custom imposes so little restraint, that the lady
often resides at the house of her future father-in-law some time before
her marriage.
The laws of Corea do not allow a plurality of wives; but sanction as
many mistresses as a man can support, provided he keeps them out of
the house. The husband can divorce his wife at pleasure, and leave her
the charge of maintaining his children. In case of unfaithfulness, he
has a right to put her to death. The observance of the marriage vow is
enforced by very severe laws, both with regard to the woman and her
lover.
The class of abandoned females is said to be very large in Chinese
cities.
Yang-Tcheou is famed for the beauty and accomplishments of its women,
many of whom are sold at a high price to the principal nobility in
various parts of the empire.
At Chinese funerals, as often as relations or friends come to look at
the corpse, the women and children set up a dismal cry.
In their pagodas the image of a woman and child, with rays encircling
the head, is often worshipped under the name of “the Sacred Mother.”
It seems difficult to reconcile this circumstance with their early and
strong aversion to the Catholic religion.
In some of their temples there is another image of a woman, whose
attributes seem to correspond with the Lucina of the ancient Romans.
* * * * *